But as Scott Canon writes in the Kansas City Star, Google will have to pry customers away from Time Warner and AT&T, who bundle their Internet service with TV.

Google doesn't have any TV service today.

But if it buys Hulu, and manages to carve out special exceptions, it could suddenly be delivering high-definition, on-demand TV content over a dedicated fiber network.

In other words, Google would not just be delivering TV over the Internet. It would be delivering TV directly to customers' homes via fiber -- making it an IPTV provider. Like AT&T is doing with U-Verse, for instance.

Recall that Google is also in the process of buying Motorola -- which currently provides digital set-top boxes to TV providers. That could fit right into becoming an IPTV service.

There would have to be a lot more to a Google TV service than Hulu -- customers also want live sports and other kinds of content. But buying Hulu would certainly be an interesting way to learn the video distribution game. Meanwhile, Google is also trying to fund original video content, and has already started showing live events via YouTube.